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Magnificat sexti toni

Introduction

Schoendorff’s Magnificat sexti toni for five voices comes from a collection of nine settings of that text published in Venice in 1593 by one of his colleagues, the Carmelite friar, tenor and court chaplain Vincenzo Nerito, who dedicated it to Chimarrhaeus. This publication was so successful that it was reissued seven years later by a Nuremberg printer. The Magnificat is sung at Sunday and Festal Vespers. As one of the innovations of the Counter-Reformation, a new Marian feast had been extended to the Church Universal in 1585: the Presentation of the Virgin (21 November). Complying with a wish already expressed a generation previously by the Council of Trent, the setting of the canticle from Luke’s Gospel alternates plainchant with polyphony while respecting the clarity of the Latin prosody, thus guaranteeing the intelligibility of the text (‘et divites dimisit’). However, as the eminent instrumentalist he was, the composer also displays his taste for ornamentation and coloratura (‘ad patres nostros’, ‘in brachio suo’).

Recordings

In this recording the Gramophone Award-nominated Cinquecento uncover the complete surviving works of Philipp Schoendorff. Schoendorff, originally a pupil of the illustrious Philippe de Monte, was a successful choirmaster at the Prague court of the ...» More

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
And my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.
For he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his handmaiden:
behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty has done wondrous things for me:
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is upon them that fear him
throughout all generations.
He has shown the power of his arm:
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has put down the mighty from their seat,
and has exalted the humble and meek.
He has filled the hungry with good things:
and the rich he has sent empty away.
He has sustained his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy.
As he promised to our forefathers,
Abraham and his sons for ever.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.
World without end. Amen.